New Music Weekly #53 | Kero Kero Bonito, Thom Yorke and Jessie Ware

New Music Weekly is your one-stop shop for new releases in the world of music each and every week. From the best of the best to some of the rest, Mark Conroy is here to give you the low down on what you might have missed. This week: Kero Kero Bonito, Thom Yorke, Jessie Ware & more…

Kero Kero Bonito ‘Dear Future Self’

The sugary, lo-fi syrup of Kero Kero Bonito poured over us in a surprise drop this past week much to the excitement of their burgeoning and devoted fanbase. The bitesize bop ‘Dear Future Self’ is one of the strongest efforts on the new record Time ‘n’ Place. The synths stab sweetly with vocalist Sarah Midori’s breeze of a voice the cheery on top. It’s a kaleidoscopic, candy crush extravaganza but in times like these, we need musical hues this bright.

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Thom Yorke ‘Has Ended’

Thom Yorke’s score for the upcoming, hotly anticipated remake of Horror classic Suspiria isn’t turning out at all like we thought it would. We might have expected dense, droning and unsettling ambiance to go with scenes of sheer terror and uneasy disquiet but what we’ve been given so far is a traditional Yorke solo record. Considering the first taster was the dreamily delirious piano ballad Suspirium, this is certainly not a bad thing. The recent effort ‘Has Ended’ is more like tranquil trip hop via Radiohead.

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SOAK ‘Everybody Loves You’

The Derry born singer returns with her first sniff of music in two years. “Everybody Loves you” is the work of a 22 year old veteran—SAOK first burst onto the scene at just 17 years of age. By now, she’s cultivated her niche as connoisseur of moody, heart on sleeve pop. The production incorporates the more relaxed staples of a hip-hop beat as Bridie Monds Watson serenely vocalises the pain of falling for someone who seems like the centre of everyone’s world when you’re the kind of person who’d rather enjoy life on the side-lines. The track’s final lift is one of self-acceptance as Watson rejects her own previous denials. When we admit how we feel about others, we find out the most about ourselves.

Charlie XCX and Troye Sivan ‘1999’

Nostalgia is ever an ever shifting commodity. The Internet is creeping away from its 90’s fixation on Pokémon and overrated games consoles and moving on to the dark, disquieting world of early noughties fashion. This might have something to do with the fact that 2000 babies would be 18 this year. ‘1999’, a collaborative effort between two ‘woke’ pop savants of today Charlie XCX and Troye Sivan, sits at the exact intersection of those two throwback obsessions. With its cheesy Max Martin tropes and incessant up-tempo attitude, ‘1999’ nails the alarming, sweet-natured escapism and late 20 th century poptimism of pre 9/11 chart music. An interesting experiment, It’s difficult to determine if this is sincere or a winking effort poking fun at our generation’s ability to obsess over our very recent past in order to ignore our troubling present. Maybe figuring out which is just part of the fun.

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Holy Ghost! ‘Anxious’

Brooklyn based synth-pop outfit Holy Ghost! have gone full disco. ‘Anxious’ is melting pot of gyrating Moroder rhythms, 70’s beats that would wear flared trousers if they could and more contemporary dance music flourishes. The choral vocals sit atop of it all, crooning confidently about the playground butterflies associated with a new crush: Sometimes the only way to exorcise all that untapped emotional energy is to dance it off.

Jessie Ware ‘Overtime’

The UK based pop soul singer gave us a surprise standalone single that premiered on BBC’s Annie Mac radio 1 programme and stalwart . As a vivacious electro house influenced stormer reminiscent of LCD Soundsytem’s ‘Get Innocuous’, it’s certainly a departure for an artist known for bombastic vocal hooks and searing r’n’b ballads. Although hardcore fans might remember this was the sort of material she started out with.

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Anderson Paak ‘Tints(Feat.Kendrick Lamar)

Anderson Paak’s third single from his upcoming, hotly anticipated Oxnard leaves our mouths well and truly watering for what looks to be the year’s strongest releases. With a touch of Nile Rodgers’ rhythmic bounce, this is Paak at his funkiest and most fun.

Mark Conroy is a writer for HeadStuff who mostly covers matters involving music, film and anything in between. He has a degree in English with History in UCD and is currently studying for a Masters in Journalism at Dublin College University.

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